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S&P500 Non-Commercial Positions:
Large speculators and traders decreased their net positions in the S&P500 stock futures markets last week and registered a net bearish position for the first time since September, according to the latest Commitment of Traders (COT) data released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Friday.
The non-commercial futures contracts of S&P500 futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of -1,688 contracts in the data reported through February 7th. This was a weekly change of -2,688 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 1,000 net contracts.
Speculative net positions have fallen for eight straight weeks and are now at the lowest level since September 13th, 2016 when net positions totaled -145 contracts.
S&P500 Commercial Positions:
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The commercial traders position, categorized by the CFTC as hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -4,899 contracts last week. This is a weekly rise of 6,986 contracts from the total net of -11,885 contracts reported the previous week.
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the S&P500 index closed at approximately 2293.08 which was a gain of 14.21 from the previous close of 2278.87, according to market data.
*COT Report: The COT data, released weekly to the public each Friday, is updated through the previous Tuesday (data is 3 days old) and shows a quick view of how large speculators or non-commercials (for-profit traders) as well as the commercial traders (hedgers & traders for business purposes) were positioned in the futures markets. The CFTC categorizes trader positions according to commercial hedgers (traders who use futures contracts for hedging as part of the business), non-commercials (large traders who speculate to realize trading profits) and nonreportable traders (usually small traders/speculators). Find CFTC criteria here: (http://www.cftc.gov/MarketReports/CommitmentsofTraders/ExplanatoryNotes/index.htm).
Article by CountingPips.com